This collection includes postcards from 45 African countries. Subjects include agriculture; animals; artists; body arts; cityscapes; cultural landscapes; dance; education; expeditions; flora; industry; leaders; marketplaces; medicine; military; missionaries; music; portraits; recreation; rites and ceremonies; and transportation, among many other topics.
Arrangement note:
Arranged by country and topic
Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Genre/Form:
Postcards
Citation:
African Postcard collection, EEPA 1985-014, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Full video record documents performances of a variety of dance societies from the Kingdom of Bafut and the neighboring kingdom of Babanki (Kedjum Keku) in the northwest province of Cameroon. A prominent feature of Bafut political life, ownership of specific dances by sub-chiefs and important nobles is a constituting element of their political authority. The dances documented in this collection include various parts of the Bafut annual ritual cycle, command performances, and mortuary celebrations. Also included is documentation over a three-year period (1981-1983) of the Abin Lela Dance of the Flutes, the climactic moment of the annual ritual cycle. This annual dance in Bafut marks the death and rebirth of the year and serves as an essential act of Bafut constitutional politics. Dance footage is accompanied by selective recording of oral testimony.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or Anthropology Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Local Numbers:
HSFA 1988.8.1
Provenance:
This collection was deposited by Dr. Ronald Engard in 1988.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
1 Folder (calendar (1909) , illustrated, 15 x 24 cm.)
Container:
Item 94
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Lantern slides
Place:
Cameroon
Africa
Date:
1906-1909
Summary:
Photographs or collected by Dr. John Sebastien Derr, a member of the Sudan United Mission in Cameroon from 1906-1909. As a missionary he was devoted to converting the people in Cameroon to Christianity and to dispelling Islam. The majority of the slides depict life in Adamawa, northern Cameroon. The images document Islamic and other populations in Cameroon. The individual and group portraits of men, women, and children primarily focus on the lives of the indigenous peoples, though a few pictures of Europeans are included. A Hausa leader is featured among the portraits.
The Sudan United Mission calendar displaying snapshots of a different missionary with each month. Dr. Derr is featured in January of 1909. Also included in the calendar are a list of officers, five prayers, a list of societies in the Sudan without a missionary and events that relate to the Sudan United Mission.
Images of musicians, cooks, hunters, and laborers give some sense of village and missionary life. Other scenes reveal Central African terrain. There are two or three views of mountains, sunrise or sunset, and regional vegetation.
Many images capture architecture, among which are building styles ranging from thatched edifices to colonial buildings and to urban street scenes in colonial Egypt. Maritime activity is exhibited in the shots of various boats used by the African peoples. European seamen and passengers are depicted as well.
Along with photographs of northern Cameroon, there are several images of life in colonial Egypt.
General note:
Images indexed by negative number.
Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Genre/Form:
Lantern slides
Identifier:
EEPA.1993-004
Archival Repository:
Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
Photographs taken by Jacob Anthony Reis to document his experiences in Southern Cameroon while serving as a Presbyterian missionary from 1909 to 1945. The photographs document the life and peoples at Jacob A. Reis's mission stations, especially in and near Efulen, Cameroon, in the early 20th Century. African peoples pictured include the Bassa, Bulu and Ntumu. Structures depicted include churches, a dispensary, a fishing hut, a saw mill, school buildings such as a Baptist girls' school in Doulal and thatched roof buildings. Also included are African ritual objects collected by the mission and a photographic reproduction of a handwritten statistical list of bible readers, communicants, preachers and students.
Arrangement note:
Images indexed by negative number.
Biographical/Historical note:
Jacob A. Reis, 1883-1945, Presbyterian missionary; graduated from Wooster College; attended Bloomfield Theological Seminary and ordained in 1908; joined the Presbyterian Church's mission in Cameroon in 1909; returned to the United States to complete his studies at the Western Theological Seminary in 1912; traveled back to Africa and served until his death in 1945.
Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Genre/Form:
Lantern slides
Transparencies
Black-and-white negatives
Identifier:
EEPA.1985-004
Archival Repository:
Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
This collection contains 369 African postage stamps from the post-independence period (circa 1960s-1970s). The stamps depict African leaders, traditional African art and artists, cultural performances, flora and fauna, and prominent visitors to the continent, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Pope Paul VI. A majority of the stamps come from Ghana, Togo, Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire. Other countries represented include Gabon, Mali, Cameroon, Tunisia, Zambia, Morocco, Dahomey (now Benin), Libya, Gambia, Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zaire (formerly the Belgian Congo and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Upper Volta (now Burkina-Faso), Mauritius, South Africa, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Uganda, Egypt, Sudan and the Comoros.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in album by country.
General note:
Title provided by EEPA staff.
Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Kevin J. O'Shaughnessy Stamp Collection, EEPA 2007-0005, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
EEPA.2007-005
Archival Repository:
Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
Tree species of southwestern Cameroon : tree distribution maps, diameter tables, and species documentation of the 50-hectare Korup Forest Dynamics Plot / D.W. Thomas ... [et al.]
31 Photographic prints ((1 box), black & white, 19 x 31.5 cm.)
Container:
Volume 1
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Photographic prints
Black-and-white photographs
Place:
Africa
Africa -- Civilization
Africa -- history -- 20th century
Date:
1954-1955
Summary:
A bound notebook of prints picturing a model of the royal palace at Babanki Tungo, West Cameroon. The accompanying caption on the inside of the first image reads, "The model represented in this photographic album is the royal palace at Babanki Tungo, West Cameroon. It was carved by Robert Toh, the royal craver, during 1954-55. The brass figurines were sculpted by Umaru Njasi, a brass-caster from Bamum. The photographs are by Evan G. Schneider and were taken in Southeastern Ohio. Mr. Schneider is also responsible for the printing. Gilbert D. Schneider Athens, Ohio - - 1968." The palace and figurines were also donated in 1979 to the Museum of African Art, now the National Museum of African Art (accession no. 79-1-1).
Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
